Welcome to Tigrai_net (www.tigrai.org, www.tigray.net: an Ethiopian News and Information site focusing on Educational Communications, & Technology!


Tigrai_Net an Ethiopian News and Information site focusing on Educational Communications, & Technology!

TIGRAINET NEWS

ETHIOPIA: Child prostitution on the rise, report says
ADDIS ABABA, 15 Jul 2003 (IRIN) - Child prostitution in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is “increasing at an alarming rate”, according to a study by Save the Children-Denmark (SCD).

AIDS Now Leading Killer of Young Adults in Ethiopia
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - AIDS is now the cause of nearly 70 percent of deaths that occur annually in men and women between the ages of 20 and 54 in Ethiopia, according to a survey conducted in the capital city of Addis Ababa.

Bush Names Coordinator for Global AIDS Policy

The New York Times (7.2.03): Five days before traveling to Africa, the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic, President Bush today named a former pharmaceutical company executive to coordinate the administration's global AIDS policy.

A replica of the Biblical Ark of the covenant, or tabot, has been taken back to Ethiopia and an Irish doctor was responsible.

But Indiana Jones he is not. No chiselled jaw line. No leather whip, no pistol. And this discovery did not require hacking through dense jungle or dodging dangerous rivals.

World Vision Ethiopia expanding its relief intervention in the south
Reuters (7.1.03):World Vision Ethiopia has expanded its relief operation in the southern part of the country.

Adigrat, Adwa Towns Get Access To Digital Telephone Service
Mekele, June 30, 2003 (WIC)- The Northern Regional Office of the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation said Adigrat and Adwa towns in Tigray State have now become beneficiaries of automatic telephone service.

Athlete Gazahagn Aberra, Elfinesh Alemu Donate 20,000 for AIDS Orphans
Addis Ababa, July 01, 2003 (WIC)- World best marathon runner Athlete Gezahegn Aberra and his spouse Elite woman Athlete, Elfinesh Alemu today donated 20,000 birr in support of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

TIGRAINET HIGHLIGHTS
Commentary WONDERFUL Path TO DEMOCRACY
By Dr G Bekele - 6 August 2003
A “Force for Good and Victory” has finally landed in America in the year 2003, a year that should and could be celebrated as the birth of UEDF (United Ethiopian Democratic Front) that has just begun the unthinkable “wonderful path to democracy” for Ethiopia; the eagerly awaited and greatest journey of them all. Praise the Lord! It was a “New Dawn”: a call for change in a quite dignified atmosphere and great legacy.

Pollution Concern Drinking Poisonous Water
I am so happy to learn that this year (2003) is declared to be an international year of fresh water. Being one of the victims of polluted water and air; at the same time; I feel helpless and in despair when I think of myself, my whole family and for the 100,000 voiceless residents of Wonji, Wonji/shoa and Metehara. Thousands of children and adults are at risk by drinking the poisonous water in these industrial communities.
By Almaz Mequanint

Commentary WHAT IS GOING ON?
"REMEMBER THE OLD ADAGE: OPPOSITIONS DO NOT WIN ELECTIONS; GOVERNMENTS LOSE THEM. BUT . . ."
DOES IT MATTER IF WE NEVER WIN THE NEXT GENERAL ELECTION? GOOD GOD, WE ARE IN THE DEPTHS OF DARKNESS.

By: Dr G Bekele - August 1,2003

My fellow Ethiopians, it is not only the losing I object to; but it is the celebration of losing to dictators and traitors who fraudulently came onto power as nationalists and looked men and women who had love of their country and fear of God but looted and destroyed our country, its history, divided the nation and went away with their millions leaving us divided, terribly weak and humiliated.

Commentary A Path for Achieving Equity in Sharing the Nile
Yosef Yacob, JD, LLM, PhD (July 31, 2003)
The issues of equitable utilization are extremely complex and I am doubtful that any prescriptive formula will ever emerge. However, the approaches, which are presently advocated in the Nile Basin are the very models, which have not been demonstrated to be effective in addressing the core issue in other International River Basins in Africa and Asia.

Commentary I am worried about the future of my Country
By Dr. Teodros Kiros (July 30, 2003)
I am worried about my country, although I realize that worry is not enough. I know too that worry is not a revolutionary feeling. Indeed worry is the language of anxiety and of morality. This feeling always precedes existential crises. Determined revolutionaries do not waste their time worrying. They eliminate those who provoke worry. They kill them when they must.

Commentary Paradigm of poverty and humanism: Undoing Ethiopia's modernity
By Prof. Tecola W. Hagos July 25, 2003
"Human rights and human dignity is not a question of religion, but the basic building block of civil society. Ethiopian society has practiced secular government structure for centuries. Even though the Ethiopian State is identified as a Christian State, Ethiopian governments have been secular governments from the time of our Christian official identity from AD 340 to date. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has provided the moral and spiritual guidance with great tolerance of Islam, unheard of in any other nation through out the ages. By contrast, if we just take the examples of Arab countries even in the Twentieth Century, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Syria we find Islam practiced as the only official religion."

2O Years of Missed Opportunities
The study, which focuses on destitution, is the third in a series carried out by Save the Children in the last ten years. These surveys have tracked levels of poverty and have provided an analysis of the local economies in this region. The key findings of this study show:
Destitute families have increased threefold from 5% to 15%.
Over 70% of the surveyed population are now characterised as poor
The number of wealthier families has fallen from 32% to 2%. [Source: Addis Tribune]

Commentary The Government of “Sibsebas” and “Gemgemas”
By Y. Mesfin July 18, 2003
Do you remember the old Derg days of Kebele “Sibsebas?” One of the unanswered prayers of the Ethiopian people until now is their wish to be relived from those types of agonizing and endless meetings. With a change of government in 1991, some may have hoped (rather naively) the new administration will not be typical of its communist predecessor at least in its style. (forget its content). To the horror and disappointment of the Ethiopian people however, another Marxist Leninist regime with an insatiable appetite for endless meetings and Gimgemas came to power and have brought back those dreadful “Sibsebas” again.

THE PRECARIOUS IROBLAND ISSUE & THE UNITED NATIONS-LED BORDER DEMARCATION AT GUNPOINT:
Failure of Arbitration or Miscarriage of Justice? By the Reverend Abba Tesfamariam Baraki(An Irob-Ethiopian-American Citizen Washington, D.C., USA)
14 July 2003

Commentary Hail the People of Tigray, Defenders of Ethiopian Sovereignty and Custodians of its Civilization
By Ghelawdewos Araia (PhD)
"In the end, however, it is the Tigrayan people in general and the Tigrayan mother in particular who are the biggest losers. Contrary to a liberating agenda, the TPLF has become a nightmare to the people of Tigray through its deception and false generosity (Lam Ale’chin Ba’semay We’tet’wa’nim Alay) and by systematically emasculating the ontological and historical vocation of the Ethiopian desire to remain free. And this ugly encounter is worse in Tigray where the people’s dream of a democratic and prosperous Ethiopia was totally shattered. On the contrary, they had yet to send their sons and daughters to the Badme, Tserona, Zalambessa, and Bure fronts, and as they have done in the past – throughout recorded Ethiopian history – they once again hosted and offered their depleted resources to their Ethiopian brethren who have come to Tigray to sacrifice for Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Incidentally, this unprecedented Ethiopian unity exhibited on the ground in Tigray was at once a sigh of relief and pride for Ethiopians who love their country, but it was a frightening experience to the internal and external enemies (with necrophilic world outlook) of Ethiopia." [Source: Ethiomedia.com]

Analysis From Polemics to Indigenous Consensus Building
Refocusing the Approach to “Equitable Use” in the Blue Nile Sub-basin
BY: Yosef Yacob (JD, LLM, PhD)
June 4, 2003

Economy Policy review imperative to tackle economic crisis [Source: The reporter]

Interview with Professor Haggai Erlich For the last thirty years, the Israeli scholar Professor Haggai Erlich has been studying the history of Ethiopia and the Middle East.
"The Muslims would be Ethiopian Muslims and not the subject of influence of Islamic radicals who would like to see Islamic victory and not Islamic participation."
"Ethiopia should be compensated in terms of technology, commerce by the Muslim-Arab world for not taking its rightful share of the Nile because if it does so, it will ruin Egypt. There should be a big exercise like that." [Source: The Reporter]

Commentary The Algiers Agreement and its Aftermath: A View from Addis
By G.W.M. (May 17, 2003)
" The Algiers agreement and the aftermath exemplify a classic case of government incompetence, arrogance, deception, betrayal, and ruthlessness." Source [EthioMedia.com]

Opinion Dejen Radio barking up the wrong and newly blossoming Atse Yohannes tree
By Tesfai Hailu (May 14, 2003)
As an alumnus of Atse Yohannes School, I was thrilled to learn on the web about the formation of the Atse Yohannes Alumni Association (AYAA). And although, due to extreme time constraint, I have not had the privilege of being part of such noble cause, I felt indebted to those who have been working hard to make a difference in the school they left behind long ago. Less than a month later, it’s really appalling and upsetting to read Dejen Radio’s alleged blasphemous attack on such innocent organization in its infancy.

Petition Harsh Lessons For a Young Association
Recently Dejen Radio (DR) on its weekly newscast (on April 19^th,2003 of its radio program) opened with an inexcusable tone of commentary over the formation of Atse Yohannes Alumni Association (AYAA).

Opinion on Religion ETHIOPIA: Religion "new breeding ground for conflict" IRINnews Africa, Thu 8 May 2003
ADDIS ABABA, - Religion is the new breeding ground for conflict in Ethiopia, a conference in the capital Addis Ababa heard on Wednesday.
"Medhane argued that both the Islamic and Evangelical Church were increasingly being backed by foreign interests which were “non-Ethiopian in culture and content"

Petition Petition L-43/2002 (The Issue of Irobland)
THE REVEREND ABBA TESFAMARIAM BARAKI
"I have received the European Parliament, Committee of Petitions, letter dated 1 April 2003 informing me that the petition filed on behalf of the people of Irob has been duly referred to the Africa Caribbean & Pacific Group of States-European Union Joint Parliamentary Assembly for consideration."

Analysis ETHIOPIAN INTELLECTUALS AND THEIR ROLE IN THE LIBERATION OF THE ETHIOPIAN PEOPLE
By Tadela (May 3, 2003)
An African American civil rights activist concerning the black intellectuals once he said:
" Very often our people at home and abroad have been led to believe that a black man can only be considered an intellectual or scholar if he has been to Oxford University or Harvard University. This approach to education has only helped to produce black Europeans out of our educated people and false black scholars who have been a liability to the black race in Africa. An intellectual in my opnion constitutes a guiding light in a revolutionary period and is the bond that unites the abstract and the concrete."

Appeal for Preventing Famine in Ethiopia = Ethiopian Consulate General in LA

Proclamation N0. 270/2002: A Proclamation to Provide Foreign Nationals of Ethiopian Origin with Certain Rights to be Excercised in their Country of Origin Proclamation.
(Requires Adobe Acrobat reader - Download here)

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